Magnus

I am up the same time I wake up for most of my life but this time not because sleep never came due to my nightmares but due to my uncontained happiness. When Antiope curled with her back into me and slept blissfully, I just couldn't stop looking at her, caressing her hair that spilled on the pillow.

She is so beautiful, my exotic beauty, the woman that was made for me to give me a chance at happiness. I still can't believe that the Moon Goddess granted me Antiope for I do not deserve her. And I will spend the rest of my life to prove worthy.

She whimpers lightly and stirs, coming even closer and as she moves, I see the little blood and my dried seed on her. She didn't even complain after I forced myself to let her rest and she slept without cleaning up. And seeing her like this, sated, calm and marked by me, I stir.

I can't hold back, I can't resist, I don't want to stop. I pull her closer and I push her leg to get her open for me. I fall like an entranced man on her mark and she moans in her sleep. Yes, mate, I smile. I let my hands move to her chest and I caress her nipple with my fingers and I feel it pebble.

"Mmm... Magnus," she mutters still asleep.

Fuck! I have never been harder in my life than right now, listening to her saying my name in her sleep. If I was uncontrollable before, I am wild right now, my wolf right there on the surface with me. I lean closer, grab my erection and I guide it to her hot depths. When I find her wet and ready, I howl lowly and I push inside her.

"Magnus," she is stirring but I don't stop.

I dig my fingers in her waist and plunge deeper inside her. Her eyelashes flutter, her eyes open half-mast and she turns to look at me over her shoulder. Her lips are swollen by the night we shared and when they part letting out a sigh, I fall on them and kiss her wildly.

I push up enough to be inside her fully and she moans. I move languidly kissing her shoulder. The feeling is so intense, I close my eyes and get lost in her. She is like a labyrinth I want to get lost in and never find the way out.

"Jag älskar dig," I whisper in her ear.

"More," she begs.

"More Swedish or more of me?"

"Both."

I laugh and get closer. I whisper in her ear as we make love. I tell her all I had dreamed of telling my mate before my curse. All I had hidden inside, locked away.

***

"Tell me," she says as we lay naked on the bed.

I instinctively shut down the mind-link. I don't have to ask what she is talking about. I dreaded this moment. Like I dreaded that she would leave me once she found out about her sister.

"I won't leave you, Magnus," she read my mind even without the connection.

"You might."

"I won't. What happened to her?"

"Don't."

"I am not doing it for me, Magnus. I am doing it for you."

I look into her eyes. She knows that what happened is eating me alive inside. But...

"Please," she begs.

I roll on my back and stare at the ceiling.

"Åsa was my twin," I start and feel the pain deep in my heart when I utter her name. "We were close. She was my little sister. Five minutes younger but still. My baby sister."

A flash of images go through my mind. From our first years as pups running around the lake to our first shift. I can still see her golden wolf with the emerald eyes.

"When she was of age, my joy doubled. My best friend, Lars, was proved to be her mate. They married and soon after Åsa was pregnant. We always said we would rule together and when our parents stepped down and retired to that same cabin you found your sister, we were ready."

I stop. That's the last good memory of hers that I have. The last party in our pack the day we took the mantle. The last till Antiope came along.

"What happened?"

"She went to visit our parents. It was in the spur of the moment. Ditched her guards and run to the cabin. She probably thought she would soon be too heavy for a run."

Antiope shifts closer to me. She senses what's coming. I want to stop but I can't. My sister... She wouldn't want me to be miserable because of her. She was always the light to my gloom.

"She felt safe. Our father after all was a fierce warrior and even then he could best our fighters. She was so near to the cabin..."

I swallow.

"I pray to the Goddess that it was swift."

"Magnus," Antiope wraps me with her body and her warmth helps me push forward.

"They were probably getting ready to attack my parents. Twenty of them for two old wolves. I guess they thought that the pregnant Alpha was an easy target. Half of them paid the price of underestimating my sister," I smile wildly before I dive back into the darkness. "But there were too many of them. And Lars and me were too far. We ran. Oh, Goddess how we ran. But halfway there we knew. She said her goodbyes and then blocked us to keep us from feeling her pain."

"No, no," Antiope laments.

"Red in white snow. That's what we saw first from afar. Then... She was naked. Her body brutalized. Her throat sliced with a silver dagger. The same dagger that pierced her swollen belly."

Antiope is crying. I hear her sobbing and I sense her pain but I am too far away. I am near that lake, over my sister's dead body.

"My mother died when she saw the body and my father followed soon. Lars was dead but held on for one reason. The same reason that kept me going as well: revenge. We gathered our warriors and ventured into the rogues' territory. We found a village. And a dead body with my sister's scent. We lost it, Lars and I. The beasts took over and there were not stopping. But it wasn't just Henrar. It was me. I let fury take over me."

"Magnus?" Antiope asks.

I will lose her. I just got her and I will lose her. But she deserves to know. I am giving her all of me.

"We killed them all. All of them."

"No."

"Even the women. The old people."

"No. No."

"And the children."

"Goddess!"

She pulls away. That's the Goddess's final punishment. Give me a mate and then have her leave me disgusted.

"The Butcher," she murmurs.

"The Butcher," I say.

"The children? Babies?"

"Lars. He wanted them all dead. His child wouldn't live and theirs wouldn't. And I just let him. I watched and did nothing to stop him."

"Then you didn't-" Antiope says in relief.

"I watched, Antiope!" I sit up and grab my head with my hands. "I stood by and let Lars lose control."

"You were in pain," Antiope tries.

"Lars killed himself after the carnage. I couldn't. I had to lead my people, protect my pack."

Antiope pulls closer.

"The Goddess wouldn't let me live unpunished. I was never to have a mate. I was to live alone, with half a soul till madness took over me. Then," I look up to meet her tearful eyes, "you came in my life. And now you will leave me."